Bodies in streets of riot-hit Myanmar town

Religious violence is continuing in central Myanmar where it is believed at least 20 people have been killed in three days of violence.

The country has declared a state of emergency in the area devastated by Buddhist-Muslim violence, the president's office said.

The town of Meiktila is believed to be locked down and access is being refused to journalists.

However, a number of videos appearing on social media show burning buildings, and witnesses claim charred bodies lay unclaimed on the streets.

The office of president Thein Sein says the emergency declaration will enable the military to help restore order in the town, located 130 kilometres north of the capital Naypyidaw.

Twenty people, including a Buddhist monk, have been killed and dozens more wounded, according to Win Htein, a lawmaker for the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) party.

There has been no verification about the number of dead.

The violence began on Wednesday, apparently triggered by an argument between a Buddhist couple and the Muslim owners of a gold shop.

Mosques and religious buildings and homes have been burnt in riots that followed, which are now feared to be spreading to surrounding villages.

Many Muslims are said to have fled and are sheltering at a sports ground. There are also reports that local journalists working in Meiktila have been threatened.

The violence comes as Myanmar, also known as Burma, struggles with serious tensions between Muslims and Buddhists that have marred international optimism over dramatic political reforms since the end of military rule two years ago.

There has been long-running concern that communal violence between Buddhists and Muslims in Western Rakhine state would spread to the rest of the country.

A local police officer said an order had been given to shoot rioters below the waist if necessary to restore order.

Myanmar's Muslims - largely of Indian, Chinese and Bangladeshi descent - account for an estimated 4 per cent of the population of roughly 60 million, although the country has not conducted a census in three decades.

Muslims entered Buddhist-majority Myanmar en masse as indentured labourers from the Indian subcontinent during British colonial rule, which ended in 1948, but despite their long history they have never been fully integrated.

Sectarian unrest has occasionally broken out in the past in some areas across the country, with Rakhine state a flashpoint for the tensions.

Since violence broke out there last year, thousands of Muslim Rohingya - including a growing number of women and children - have fled the conflict in rickety boats, many heading for Malaysia.